cause

Forms

cause f (oblique plural causes)^[1]

• causse^[2]

Chrétien de Troyes's manuscript writes the plural quauses.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin causa (“cause, reason; lawsuit”), a learned word beside the inherited chose, which continues the same Latin noun.^[1][4][5][6] The Latin noun, written caussa in inscriptions until the 1st century BC, has no secure etymology: de Vaan reports Walde and Hofmann's link with cūdō (“to strike”) and Ernout and Meillet's doubts about any Indo-European origin.^[7] The DHLF also calls the Latin word of unknown origin, perhaps pre-Latin or borrowed.^[8]

The DHLF dates the borrowing to about 1120, Bloch and Wartburg and Gamillscheg to the 12th century.^[8][4][5] Middle English took the word both from Old French and directly from Latin.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Anglo-Norman prose Cambridge Psalter, which the DEAF bibliography dates to the first half of the 12th century and the TLFi to the middle of it.^[11][12] There the word is legal: fere la cause de “to take up someone's case, do them justice” (Psalm 139:13).^[12] The AND also dates its first citation to the first half of the 12th century.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Latin causa meant both a lawsuit and a reason or motive, and French kept both.^[8] The legal sense came first in the record, from the Psalter's phrase to Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Troie of 1165–1170, where it means a matter or lawsuit,^[12] and Chrétien de Troyes uses it once, of a suit at law, in his Lancelot.^[3] Anglo-Norman texts add the cause or reason of something, an aim, an accusation, a party or faction, and the prepositional phrases meaning “because of” and “on account of”.^[13]

In Middle French the word covered the origin or reason of anything, in theology and philosophy as in ordinary use.^[14] The sense of a person's interests came in 1465 in the Farce de Pathelin, and later set phrases such as mettre en cause (1718) and donner gain de cause (1797) grew from the legal sense.^[12]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – fere la cause de in the Anglo-Norman Cambridge Psalter (mid-12th century by the TLFi's dating).^[11][12][13]
• 1150–1200 – in the Quatre livres des Rois, the DEAF's earliest dated reference.^[15][16]
• 1165–1170 – “matter, lawsuit” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[12]
• c. 1177 – the plural quauses in Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot.^[3]
• 1465 – “a person's interests” in the Farce de Pathelin.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a cause, reason or motive; what brings something about.^[13][17]
2. (law) a lawsuit, action or case.^[3][13][18]
3. an accusation; an argument or proposition put forward.^[13]
4. a matter, business or affair.^[13]
5. a cause or aim one supports; a party or faction.^[13]
6. in phrases: “because of, on account of”, “in the matter of”.^[13]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word cause, first cites it from the first half of the 12th century, and lists the spellings cauce and cauz among others.^[13] Its insular senses run from the reason or instigator of something to a legal action, an accusation, a faction, and phrases meaning “to put forward one's case” and “to take legal action against”.^[13] Middle English cause is recorded from about 1200, in the sense of a reason or grounds for action.^[10]

Word family

• causer

Descendants

• Middle English cause (borrowed; → English cause)^[1]
• Middle French cause (→ French cause)^[1]
• Norman cause^[1]

Related words

• chose

Usage notes

Every dictionary heads the word cause: Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the DÉCT, the AND and the DMF.^{[16][17][3][13][14]} The DEAF has only a list of references for it.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. cause
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 154
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 215
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:542
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. causa
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cause
9. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. PsCambrM
12. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. cause
14. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. cause
15. ^ a b Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. cause
16. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:71
17. ^ a b Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 9:10
18. ^ Foerster, Wendelin; Breuer, Hermann (1914), Kristian von Troyes: Wörterbuch zu seinen sämtlichen Werken, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 73